


Reunion

by grovestep



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canonical Character Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-10-04 18:57:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17310089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grovestep/pseuds/grovestep
Summary: Fareeha Amari is no stranger to death.





	Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> This story is along the same vein as my other, “To Old Ghosts.” Might make a third about Gabriel.

Fareeha Amari was no stranger to death.   
Ever since she was a child, the world let her know the fate everyone suffered.   
She knew her mother killed bad people. Ana drilled the importance of justice into her head. She knew her mother didn’t kill lightly. Sometimes she would sneak into Ana’s room, pick the lock to her safe with deft hands, and gaze in wonder at her rifle. Fareeha knew what the notches meant. She knew when her mother returned from a mission with a fresh notch that another bad person had met their end.   
But it wasn’t just the bad people that died.   
Fareeha knew when one of her friends didn’t return from a mission they were dead. She often sat in contemplation, looking out over the water at Gibraltar, and wondered if they suffered. She knew that not everyone was as merciful a killer as her mother.   
But it wasn’t just the bad people and friends that died.   
Sometimes it was family.   
The news of her mother’s passing devastated Fareeha. They had a fight about joining Overwatch before Ana shipped out. Fareeha gave into bitter tears over her mother’s grave, cursing the woman who chose justice over her own daughter. Cursing the mother who wouldn’t let her follow in her footsteps.   
When Uncle Jack and Uncle Gabe were killed in the Swiss base, Fareeha was completely numb. Her family had been snatched from her hands yet again. She spared no tears at their funerals. Instead, she vowed to uphold the code of justice Ana had instilled in her being. She would fight for Ana, Jack, and Gabe.   
—  
Fareeha had been receiving letters from a woman claiming to be her mother.   
They were written in a familiar flowing script and explained everything after her mother’s death. Fareeha crumpled the first letter up and threw it in the garbage. She knew it had to be a sick prank, but when they kept coming her certainty wavered. She would stare down at the letters for hours at a time, recalling the mother that taught her all she knew. She clenched her fist and threw the letters in the trash. Her mother would never leave her in the dark for this long. Her mother would never let her suffer like this. Ana preferred quick, clean kills. This was too agonizing.   
So when a letter came begging Fareeha to meet, she knew she had to go. She had to see who was causing her such torment, who was digging up ghosts she had buried long ago.  
—  
Fareeha leaned against a wall in an alleyway in Cairo. She looked back and forth down the dark alley, one hand on her weapon. The letter-sender requested they meet at this exact spot. Fareeha recognized it to be right around the corner of her favorite restaurant. Whoever it was, they knew her well.   
A cloaked figure approached from back of the alley. Fareeha’s jaw clenched as she recognized the familiar cut of her mother’s cape. She took a deep breath, knowing that it couldn’t be true. Her mother was dead. Even when the figure pulled back the hood of their cape, revealing the weathered face of Ana Amari, Fareeha couldn’t believe it. The woman in front of her was older, more scarred, and missing an eye, but wore the unmistakable face of her mother. Fareeha looked away.   
“Fareeha,” Ana said, reaching out one hand as though to caress her daughter’s face. Fareeha jerked away, her hand staying on her weapon. Ana recoiled as if she’d been slapped. “Fareeha, I’m sorry. I should have told you sooner.”  
Fareeha reeled around, facing Ana completely, “You’re _sorry?_ Is that all you have to say to me? After all of this?” she spat, feeling years of turmoil welling up and spilling out.   
Ana’s eye widened but she didn’t step away from her daughter’s wrath. She looked at Fareeha sadly, “I didn’t mean to cause you such pain. To the world I am dead, Fareeha. That is how it has to be.”  
“Dead people don’t send their daughters letters,” Fareeha snarled, reaching into her jacket and pulling out the crumpled letters she had fished from the trash. She threw them at Ana’s feet. “Dead people don’t walk or talk or request to meet. Dead people are just that, _dead._ So why does a ghost claw its way from the grave? To torment me?”  
“I couldn’t go on keeping you in the dark. I couldn’t keep watching from the shadows,” Ana said, “I thought you deserved to know.”  
“And I couldn’t go on without my own _mother._ I buried her a long time ago. In front of me now stands a stranger.”   
They stood staring at each other for a long moment. Tears of frustration poured down Fareeha’s face. Ana bent to pick up the crumpled letters, folding them neatly. Fareeha didn’t notice that her hands were shaking. Ana stepped closer to her daughter, treading lightly, as though approaching a caged lion. Fareeha watched her with narrowed eyes.   
Ana pressed the letters into Fareeha’s hand, “I understand if you never want to see me again, Fareeha. I need you to understand why I did it. I need you to know how proud I am of you,” Ana said. She reached out both hands to Fareeha’s face. This time, she didn’t pull away. Ana cupped both of her cheeks, running a thumb across the _wadjet_ there. “I was a fool to keep you from your dreams, Fareeha. I didn’t want to you follow me down this path. Do you see where it has brought me? Dead to the world and to my own daughter.”  
Fareeha felt her chest tighten. She stared down at Ana. She lifted her empty hand and placed it over her mother’s. Her bottom lip quivered. She took in one shaky breath, exhaling and promptly breaking out into a sob, “I missed you, Mama.”  
“I missed you too, Fareeha. I missed you more than I could ever say,” Ana said.   
Fareeha pulled her into a hug, pressing her face into the crook of her mother’s neck. She reveled in the familiar scent, unchanged after all this time. If she closed her eyes she could almost imagine she was five again, embracing her mother when she returned from a trip. That’s all it was, really. A mother returned from a tour of duty.   
“I hope I’ve done you justice, Mama,” Fareeha said.  
“Yes, my little falcon. You have.”


End file.
